sonal employers and who have never violate the terms of their past visas or other U.S. laws. These workers do not pose a security risk and they are not taking away jobs from Americans. The H-2B returning worker exemption in the omnibus appropriations bills simply provides that if an H2B worker has been counted against the cap in one of the three prior years, that worker can return to work in the H2B program in the current year without being counted against this year’s cap. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that this provision will allow an additional 8,000 H-2B workers to be admitted into the U.S. during the remainder of fiscal 2016.
Is the H-2B Program a Way for Large Corporations to Avoid Hiring Americans? Most companies that use the H-2B program are small businesses, which is why the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy has repeatedly opposed burdensome new H-2B regulations. Small businesses that use the program are landscape contractors, independent hotels and resorts, family owned carnivals, forest tree planters, seafood and sugarcane processors and others. They use the program despite the considerable costs associated with hiring H-2B workers, such as the higher wages dictated by the Department of Labor, the requirement to pay H-2B workers’ transportation costs to and from the United States, the program user fees and the costs and time spent on program paperwork that must be filed with four government agencies. Small businesses that use the program would gladly avoid all the costs and hassles associated with the program if they could find enough American workers. In fact, the H-2B program requires employers to hire any able and willing American workers to fill open positions.
H-2B WORKFORCE COALITION
Protecting American Workers Through a Stable and Reliable Seasonal Workforce Link here for more information Page 42